athlete who won a game and said, remember, don't bet against me. >> we understood, he had to walk a tightrope. >> if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> he may not have been born in this country. >> you can question my policies without questioning my faith. or for that matter, my citizenship. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. race is an issue i believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. a part of our union we have not yet made perfect. we know the march is not yet over. we know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our

character require s admitting a much, facing up to the truth. i have never been so naive as to believe we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle. or with a single candidate. particularly -- [ applause ] particularly, a candidacy as imperfect as my own. but i have asserted a firm conviction that working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice. we have no choice if we are to continue on the panel of a more perfect union. >> i think we understood, the

majority of us, that he had to walk a tightrope. and he was going to have to do some things we didn't understand. but we knew if he fell off that rope, all of our hope was gone. he had his black critics that wanted him to do more. some of it was personal. some of it was sincere. but he had to strike that balance and walk that tightrope. it was a test about having steel nerves. because he couldn't say it, even in private. he could only just infer that, trust me, i understand why i'm here. >> one of the ways obama was able to convince america to elect him is because he wasn't

the angry black man. i'm the not who will holler at you and strohout and guilt you. that's not my approach. i'm calm and rational and reasonable. >> what was clear throughout all the years covering him was that both he and michelle, they had to do whatever they could to minimize the distractions that could come from being the first african-american president, particularly in the first term. he didn't want to engage on racial issues. >> almost all of what obama did was race neutral. he was rescuing the economy, restruck tuckin in-- restructurh care. race was his greatest vulnerability.

he had to handle it with ee n enormous care. >> dear president obama, i can congratulate you on ascending to the highest office in america. i never thought i would live to see the day when a black man becomes a president of the united states. nonetheless, i hope you remember where you came from and would make it your duty to ensure the black population of america is given priority employment, social and educational opportunities. otherwise, you may force your fellow african-americans into a position of believing that you are a sellout against us. richard. >> i was aware -- i don't know if i was aware as a journalist or an african-american that this is tough territory, because this is a president who vowed and campaigned on the idea of being a president for all the people. this was not a black american,

asian american. this is the united states of america. i think he was always hesitant to get too pulled into racial discussions and for him to be seen solely as this black president with an agenda that was essentially black issues. i think you saw that struggle, certainly during the first term. >> henry lewis gates junior wants an apology from a white police officer who arrested him last week after gates forced his way into his own home after having trouble with the lock in cambridge, massachusetts. >> he is a black national resource. a professor in the ivy league. at the heart african-american studies in the country. one of our most gifted minds. to see him handcuffed, to see him handcuffed on his own porch,

this is crazy. >> police say gates was exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior. the report says, gates was calling the police racist and shouting, this is what happens to black men in america. >> it became a confirmation for me that no matter your standing and station in life, you can get reminded very quickly of who you are in relation to some folks. >> i have had enough. >> prosecutors dropped the charges against the professor and cambridge calls the incident regrettable and unfortunate. >> we are hear today to support professor gates. to demand apology -- >> president obama understood some of the dynamics and some of the -- not so much the fear but some of the suspicion between african-american communities and police. a historic sense of distrust. this was an opportunity to hear him articulate that. >> president obama's comment

took place at the end of a press conference, focussed on the affordable care act. on the last question, he was asked about gates. president obama responded off the cuff. >> it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. number two, the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting something when there was proof that they were in their own home. >> good morning. harsh president. president obama slams the officers who arrest aed a prominent black scholar. >> i could not believe my ears. >> that choice of words ignited a strong emotional response. >> i think the president could have stopped short at labeling the police department as stupid. >> it was as if a bomb had been lit. >> what kind of president of the

united states immediately jumps on the police? >> it gets so extreme on that side. i think obama just hates white people and the white culture. >> this president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep seeded hatred for white people or the white culture. >> they have this relentless drum beat that obama is an angry force of black nationalism. >> in an unannounced visit to the press briefing room, president obama attempted to tamp down a media firestorm he sparked himself. >> i could have calibrated the words differently. >> a meeting is likely in the offing. >> discussion about he and i and professor gates having a beer here in the white house. we don't know if that's scheduled. >> we have the understandably upset gates. you have got the police officer who feels like his work has been

impugned and doesn't understand why. what does obama do? he brings the police officer and gates to the white house for a beer summit. >> this has been called the beer summit. it's a clever term. but this is not a summit. this is three folks having a drink at the end of the day. >> it's the ongoing task, whether you are in the white house or you are teaching at princeton or working at the post office, is to figure out how to dampen white fear. i gotta make white america comfortable with me again. let's have a drink. let's create the conditions under which we can at least make the theater of race in the country less threatening. sg >> the table was set. the press was in place. refreshments. diplomatic language. >> we had a cordialp

productive discussion. >> it led to a freakout on cable news. ultimately, this very dumb beer summit where obama has to sit there with the cop and gates and look like everything is okay. >> what is this performance? what is he doing? who are they trying to make comfortable? he says something that was obviously true. that the police officer acted stupidly. that you have to bend over backwards to make certain folk feel comfortable in this country. >> i learned two very important lessons as a result of the gates issue. first of all, that anything can serve as a distraction to your agenda. that's all the press was talking about. the second lesson is that every single word that president obama said had the potential to be a lightning rod. particularly when it came to the issue of race.

>> i think the lesson that obama took from that is, it's a loser. everybody will want me to touch this third rail and talk about racial issues all the time. if i do that, i can't talk about governing this country. governing this country and i'm still going for my best. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm on top of that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? getting out there. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk

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we must stop this government takeover of health care. >> the situation with henry

lewis gates was an ignition in a lots of ways. coming together at the same moment with big change in washington. the first black president. if you were to listen to critics of him trying to tear up the health care system in america. you can think about how that was being received in certain parts of the country. there was something happening at that time. >> tens of thousands of people gathered at tea parties coast to coast, protesting the spending and bailout plans. >> the tea party movement began in 2009 as tea being an acronym for taxed enough already. a lot of people were financially hurting. a lot of people were jobless. the argument was, why are the democrats not just doing everything they humanly can to create more jobs? why do they want to have a big government takeover of or health care system? the tea movement began under the

guise of being a fiscal grievance. it was clear that it was pregnant with much more than that. >> ironically enough, if you are concerned about the economy, it was horrible under george bush. why didn't the tea party rise then? there was racial hostility. >> this war against obama's liberal policies that bo bring down capitalism, turned into this nasty, personal and, of course, racism movement. people are showing him as a monkey. i interviewed a tea party leader who said he want racist bust walked around with a sign saying, taxes are the chains and white people are the n words. he didn't use n words. he wrote the word on his sign. >> obviously, i have different views than many in the tea party and certainly they would say they have different views from

me in terms of the proper role of government in our society. my general view is that the more engaged the american people are, the more focused they are, then the better off our democracy will be over the long term. >> barack obama did the best he could to play is straight and suggest that as americans, we could come together by believing in principles. >> over six weeks until the mid te mid-term elections. >> i need you because this isn't going to be easy. >> fearing a lack of enthusiasm as the election draws near and with democratic control of congress in doubt, last night the president delivered an urgent appeal to his party's base. >> the mid-term wasn't a surprise to president obama. i saw him four weeks or so before the election for an interview. he knew it was coming. he was processing it in his head why it was going to happen and what it would mean for him.

>> i think the president was probably pretty clear sighted about this, that his party was going to pay a price for the affordable care act. i think he probably was willing to do that, understanding that the affordable care act was an enormous achievement. >> at the capitol, tea party activists were preparing to celebrate their arrival as a force in american politics. >> we have come to take our government back. >> votes have been tallied. republicans will control the chamber. >> the elephant in the room tonight is the tea party. >> the power of the tea party. >> the unbelievable surge of this movement. >> some election nights are more fun than others. some are exhilarating. some are humbling. >> it's hard to know whether barack obama fuelled the rise of the toea party or it emerged on its own and he became the symbol of all that was wrong with the country. the two things collided, the

obama presidency and the rise of the tea party. he was being challenged on more than just policy issues but on his intent, his patriotism, who he is, literally, who he was. >> i am the first to confess, i'm not always right. michelle will testify to that. surely, you can question my policies without questioning my faith or for that matter my citizensh citizenship. [ applause ] >> we began to see the makings of the birther movement. one of the chief progreople wer donald j. trump. >> he may not have been born in the country. >> it was about accusing the

first black president of not being a citizen. >> trump didn't create it but he stokes it. >> i'm not saying -- it's a real possibility. >> why was he on television? a real estate developer, reality guy with a racist conspiracy theory deserves air time for two or three months? >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? i have to. everybody else has to. >> you can't -- >> excuse me. >> it wasn't just fox. donald trump was on "good morning america," the "view," cnn. what was the news value. >> we were furious. he took it better than we did. he is even keeled like that. >> president obama sees donald trump leading this birther idea that he wasn't born in the country. on the one hand, it's all a joke. he sees trump as a carnival barker who shouldn't be taken

seriously. this is just nonsense. he clearly has an impact. >> 51% of republican primary voters believe obama was not born in the united states. >> he is hammering president obama over his birth certificate. the officials in hawaii say there is no controversy. >> to some people, this was an absurd, fantastical notion on its face. to others, it was offensive and racist. there was also a crowd that was hospitable to it. >> daddy was a kenyan. he needs to step down. >> it was not the thing you hear a speaker john boehner or mitch mcconnell voice. they didn't push back against it. >> how do you think it comes to be that this misinformation gets spread around? >> i have no idea. i take the president at his word. >> he won't endorse it. but they won't repudiate it. they won't say it's wrong. something like, i take him at his word.

>> the state of hawaii has said that he was born there. that's good enough for me. the president says he is a christian. i accept him at his word. >> obama would say to me, not so much surprised as in kind of dark humor, they can't even condemn the birther movement? >> it is not our job to tell the american people what to believe. >> they were okay with this. the energy that this was generating, the energy in their base was more valuable to them than the idea that it is wrong to say that the first black president was born in africa. >> if i were advising then president obama, i would have said to him, hell no, don't show them nothing. you go out there and you give a speech and tell them to kiss your ass and move on. >> i think obama just decided he had had enough. he called in the white house

counsel and was like, i want you to go get my birth certificate. we will release it. >> the white house this morning has released the long form copy of his birth certificate. >> i know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. but i'm speaking to the vast majority of the american people as well as to the press. we do not have time for this kind of silliness. we got better stuff to do. >> i think when he had to finally release his birth certificate, the political side of me said, okay, now that shuts that down. the core of me said, we still have to keep proving that we are americans. >> i was working with a dozen young black journalists.

i think all of us were angry. we were angry at him because we felt that he should have never had to give in to that kind of indignity. >> most disappointing part for me, aside from the bs that trump and others were perpetuating, was the fact that the president actually showed his birth certificate. i understand why he did. i just thought that for me it gave too much power to the wrong people, to the wrong voices. it said that even as a black president, i still have to prove something. the fact that i am president isn't proof enough. at new chapter vitamins we've been busy too... innovating, sourcing organic ingredients,

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the time that i spent working at the white house, you know, gave me a wonderful perspective of history in general. as an african-american man, i used to walk the halls and

reflect, i wonder how people would feel to know that we have progressed this far in these same halls to not only come to a place where the world is a more equal place but on the top floor sits an african-american president and his family in buildings that were built on the hands of slaves. you walk through those halls and your shoulders lean back more. you feel proud. blessed to have an opportunity to share in that time. >> i was honer ored to go to th white house from super bowl parties to michelle obama's birthday party. they were regular people. they would come in and they would talk to everybody. they knew all of us. you could exhale and be who you

are. >> john legend, live at the white house. >> i remember when we had the birthday party. they had prince as the surprise guest. as prince was performing, he went into a stevie wonder song. stevie walks out. i looked at the president and the painting on the wall of george washington. i said, george washington never thought he would see this. it don't get better than this. that's the kind of world they were in. but michelle obama said, you have fun, they are going upstairs, good night. it was almost like you are in chicago, the party is over. everybody go home. you don't have to go home, but you are leaving here. that kind of thing. that authenticity set a different tone around this country. i think that authenticity came through because of michelle obama. >> you got the sense that the advisers around president obama objected to the idea of him

skating too far into blackness, because of the fear that it would turn white voters off. i think that the trayvon martin case was one of the cases that for barack obama represented a tipping point for him personally and for his family. >> 17-year-old trayvon martin was walking to a family friend's home when he was shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain. >> the shooter, 28-year-old, george zimmerman, has not been arrested. >> we don't understand why he has not been arrested. >> did george zimmerman fire in self-defense? >> when trayvon martin was killed, the issue when they came to me was they wouldn't arrest zimmerman. as if to say, it's just all right to kill. it's fine. he is a black kid. his life means nothing. >> community leaders are outraged, holding rallies,

demanding an arrest. >> i am -- >> trayvon martin. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> we want an arrest. we want a conviction. we want him sentenced for the murder of our son. >> he saw how much the community was hurting all around the country. really wanted to, i think, give voice to it. we were talking to him and he wasn't asking us for our advice. it was more like, i'm going to do this, get ready for it. >> i remember being in the oval office with him, and he was so upset about the fact that this young man couldn't simply walk down the street without being pure seef perceived as a thread. he said, if i had a son, he would look like trayvon martin, with intense emotion. and anger in his voice. he said to david, i know we are having a press conference on an unrelated matter, but i want

somebody to ask me what i think about this. >> the obama white house knew which reporters were interested in which issues. we could give them a heads up if they asked their question that president obama was likely to answer it. >> white house kept in touch with us. one of his aides said, watch the statement. i told the parents. that's when he came out of the rose garden. >> let me ask the trayvon martin case. >> i'm head of the executive branch. the attorney general reports to me. i have to be careful about my statements to make sure that we're not impairing any investigation that's taking place right now. but obviously, this is a tragedy. >> that was one of many moments where he didn't sit down with

his communications team and have a lengthy discussion about the strategic right thing to say. >> my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> he felt in the moment it was true and it was important to say out loud. >> obama made an active radical identification with him. i understand who that young kid is. >> he was speaking for hundreds and thousands of fathers. he was sharing their pain, their hurt. i think many young people are appreciative that he said something. >> the martin family are humbled by the president's concern about their son's death. they hope this attention ensures no other young child is ever the victim of such a senseless tragedy again. >> we had the rally.

it started shifting the national spotlight. within days, george zimmerman was arrested. >> as the attorney said, this is just the beginning. we got a long way to go. we have faith. >> good morning. george zimmerman, acquitted. >> cheers and protests as george zimmerman is found not guilty. >> he loved his wife. >> innocent child. >> this system is wrong. >> rallies and vigils across the u.s. >> thousands of americans expressed disappointment in the jury's decision. >> i want to talk to obama, to congress. i want to talk to anybody that's going to listen.

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full shutdown. iran is calling the death of its top nuclear scientist an assassination. he was suspected of being the architect of a covert iranian program. iran blames israel. no comment from israel or the u.s. government. back to msnbc's special presentation of "obama." at some point we became aware that michelle obama had strong feelings about the trayvon martin case and more important what the president should be saying or what the expectations on him were in that critical moment. the first time we heard from him, he gave the idea that if he had a son, he might look like trayvon martin. that seemed rather personal. >> fast forward when he then makes another speech and partly pushed by michelle and michelle's family and michelle's brother, who were very close to him to say more than that.

>> when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son. another way of saying that is that trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago. >> he talked about, can you imagine what it might mean to be in the other person's shoes and in this case african-american shoes and why there was such enormous hurt and pain and grief. >> there are few african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me. there are few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. >> when you put a person in the highest office in a position in

the world in the shoes of someone who was shot and killed potentially for being black, it's just like -- it makes you think about things differently. it shined a bigger light on what existed in the country. >> i don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better and that along this long, difficult journey, we're becoming a more perfect union. not a perfect union, but a more perfect union. >> it would put it in personal terms that with his intent was america could stand back and process these things and see them through the eyes of the african-american experience, which many americans simply don't -- aren't familiar with. >> the killing of trayvon martin, that was the beginning of black lives matter. then you get to the summer and

you get death after didn't afea. >> 2014 was one of the worst years probably for president obama. i can't speak for him, but he seemed to be in a lot of pain personally. the country was being in a lot of ways ripped apart on race and police violence. eric garner choked to death on the streets of new york city while saying, i can't breathe. a 12-year-old who is shot by police. the body of michael brown lying in the street for four hours and his mom not able to go to him. you have this black man in the white house trying to figure out what to say. >> you were seeing black americans saying, there's something happening here. we are demanding better. >> i've said this before. too many communities around the country, a gulf mistrust exists

between local residents and law enforcement. >> obama may have been tone deaf. >> there are young black men that commit crime. >> he said, that are some black people who do commit crimes. if they do, they must be held to account. right after mike brown, right after the disconsolation that black people feel in the face that police seem to be out of control and kill black people without legal redress. >> i understand the passions and anger that arise over the death of michael brown. giving in te ining into that by carrying guns or attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. >> obama stumbled. he was torn as to how to address race. >> there's always going to be tension when it comes to race matters and the first african-american president. there was underneath the surface

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lines begin to evolve, you could see his conflict play out where he looked at trayvon martin and said, that's me. he is right about that. america didn't understand that. there was reaction -- negative reaction to his saying that. he backs off of it. >> how do you balance talking about race and being in that position of president where you know that's not what people are always trying to hit? is guilt there, is shame there when it comes to racism? some people just feel like we don't want to deal with it because it's not affecting us. we want to stay in our comfortable place. >> black lives matter and all the other groups and organizations, they're supposed to put pressure on the president. i get that. i get the drive and push for the president to do more

specifically throughout the african-american community. barack obama had to walk a fine line. the moment barack obama seemed to be leaning toward one group or another, it all explodes. >> proud to stand with law enforcement and firefighters. they are american heroes. we need a president who doesn't attack and vilify them and who doesn't seek to tear us apart along racial lines. >> in selma, after a horrible year in terms of race and police violence the year before, i think president obama began to find his voice in a really -- in a new way. >> it was the 50th anniversary of the marches from selma to montgomery where young black people, but not only black people were marching for their right to vote, not looking for

special treatment, just equal treatment that this country promises. >> it was the perfect jump off point for him to really give an impassioned speech about the lingering stain of racism in this country. >> we gather here to honor the courage of ordinary americans willing to ensure billy clubs and the chastening rod, tear gas and trampling hoof, men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their north star and keep marching towards justice. >> he was able to bring together ideas about our possibilities, about pain, about racism, about our current condition. >> this week i was asked whether i thought the department of justice's ferguson report shows that with respect to race little has changed in this country. and i understood the question. the report's narrative was sadly

familiar. it evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the civil rights movement. but i rejected the notion that nothing has changed. what happened in ferguson may not be unique, but it's no longer endemic, it's no longer sanctioned by law or custom. before the civil rights movement, it most surly was. >> you couhe could speak to eve. he always talked about how a white woman who watches her husband leave for work as a police officer worried he won't come home, there's a common cause with a black american who sees her teen leave the house worried he won't come home. these are things we can try to understand about each other. >> we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on, the idea that police officers are members of the community. they risk their lives to protect. citizens in ferguson and new york and cleveland, they want

the same thing young people marched for here 50 years ago, the protection of the law. >> look at the progress we have made on race relations as a country and celebrate that progress while also realizing how much further we have to go. >> we know the march is not yet over. we know the race is not yet won. we know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged all of us by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. we just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. >> active shooter. don't worry, e going to love you. oh my gosh you made it! oh shoes! i thought y'all got lost or something. did you put some ah, kale in the greens?

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if anybody actually thought barack obama becoming president of the united states meant race relations were going to be perfect from then on, nobody thought that, he never thought that. but he say able to talk about it in times that made a difference in real peril. >> how do you take a situation so tragic and offer some comfort to people who have been so terribly affected by such an unthinkable crime? >> we are following the breaking news overnight. nine people have been killed in a historic african-american church in charleston, south carolina, and this morning the police chief says he believes it was a hate crime. >> nine people were dead, six women and three including the church's beloved pastor. >> as details came to light all the victims were african-american, and their assassin was a white kid who later claimed he wanted to start a race war. >> gathered together ipprayer

and nongone much too soon. >> president obama expected to personally deliver the eulogy this friday. >> churches have been safe spaces for black people in the united states. folks who are just coming for sunday school, reading their bibles. and what happened? it's the height of a certain kind of barbarity. >> that first meeting sitting there with a couple of speechwriters and a couple members of his staff it wasn't as if we were sitting there and he said i know exactly the thing to do. it was actually the opposite of that. he was expressing frustration about i know i have to do something and i want to do something to offer some comfort to people who are hurting so badly, but what am i supposed to do? >> this was just so beyond overwhelming. in some ways we've become numb to this sort of thing.

but in 2015 this was -- it wasn't just raw and painful, it was new. >> over the course of the weekend something extraordinary happened. the shooter was in a bond hearing. one by one in open court every single one of the family members said i forgive you. and the president thought about it it and said if we are going to give a eulogy that's what i want to talk about. >> i was on marine one with both president and mrs. obama. we were feeling that sense of dread about going to this memorial service. and when i feared would be a depressing memorial service turned out to be an extraordinary celebration of life. >> the president of the united states of america, the honorable barack obama.

>> out of this terrible tragedy god has visited grace upon us. for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind. >> if we can find that grace anything is possible. if we can tap that grace, everything can change. amazing grace, amazing grace. >> i remember wondering is he just going to stop speaking because there's no words.

there was this sense of what is a way you can address something like that with words, and i think to some extent the answer that he provided was, well, you have to go a little beyond words. ♪ amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ that saved a wretch like me ♪ i once was lost but now i

found, was blind but now i see ♪ >> when he hesitated right before he sang i wondered was he thinking sing, no sing, and later he said, no, i was just trying to figure out which key to sing in. >> african-americans needed to see that, that that was in him, he wasn't just an intellect that can talk about race and that can examine our racial condition like a surgeon, that he also can be a pastor. >> he gave us hope. he lifted us. maybe just maybe in that moment he brought us together as one people, as one family, as one

house. the american people, the american family, the american house. >> that's when black america knew, yeah, he really is one of us. but not only did it identify with us with our gospel roots to be comfortable enough to do that in the most catastrophic situation, it was his way of governing bringing about healing. i sat there and said he's really grown into not only being president but he's made the presidency grow. >> i have asserted a firm conviction that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that in fact we have no choice. we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. not a perfect union but a more perfect union.

>> we're still at war in iraq and afghanistan where we're really on the edge. >> geopolitics is not for amateurs. >> there's been another mass shooting in america. somehow this has become routine. rolling sound. quiet.